Early November Tree Skiing Madness!!

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On Friday November 3rd, Jay Peak fired up the snow guns on The Jet and Haynes as unseasonably low temperatures continued throughout New England. Jay Peak plans on bumping up their opening to the weekend before the Thanksgiving Holiday and will have plenty of snow to do so, even with the pending warm up next week. All the major players let loose their guns this week to capitalize on a rare shot at prolonged early November snow making. The masses also descended on Jay Peak to capitalize on a chance to ski and ride early season man made snow before the lifts start moving. Where were all these people the past two weeks when Jay had epic late October snow? I have no idea.

While I had prepared myself for Jay to have substantially less snow and worse conditions than my first four days in October, I had not prepared myself for the massive disappearance of snow. Approaching the mountain, Can Am and Power Line (which were both socked with snow last week) bore huge brown spots and disastrously thin cover. The lower slopes at Stateside were no longer skiable nor skinable, so I carried my skis on my pack and began hoofing up Derick Hot Shot.

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October Dusk Patrol at Jay Peak

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To conclude October with my personal best record of four days of skiing, I left work early to Dusk Patrol Jay Peak. My birthday present was sweet indeed as on the eve of the anniversary of my birth, nature offered up excellent turns on a beautiful late afternoon. I could not have asked for a better present than to be on my fourth day of turn earning before October ends. The myriad shades of color spreading across the valley from behind Jay Peak as the sun set was the proverbial icing on the cake.

With the 30th in the books, I have passed my October total for last year and without hesitation can confirm this early season has been and continues to be way better than last year’s early season. While I have not had as much powder depth this year, the lack of consistently deep powder has been more than made up for by the consistently good base, consistently good conditions, and consistently cool weather. I will take consistently great over once in a while superior.

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Skiing Valhalla at Jay in October

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With two more days left in October and snow still falling at Jay, I ventured out for day number three of the season with plans for a fourth before October was in the books. Despite a decent snow storm the night before, Jay’s open trails were picked clean and wind blown. No worries though as it was still snowing around the summit and as per usual at Jay Peak, the goods were to be found in between the trees. Tree skiing in October? Heck yea!

Austin and I joined up for the drive up to Jay Peak from my house in St. Johnsbury. Occasional flurries near the high point of I-91 got us jonesing but we knew the best was yet to come. Climbing up Route 242, there was a very definitive line between the rain and the snow. Although Jay probably got all rain at one point, they had a sweet change over Sunday morning. Not much snow was to be found in the parking lot, but it was starting to come down when we arrived. By the time we reached the summit, it was puking!

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October 21st First Tracks at Jay Peak!

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The 2006-2007 installment of the “One run for the Price of None Tour” has begun! One week after a freak snow storm buried Buffalo under a few feet of snow during mid-October, an unrelated storm system slammed into New England bringing heavy rains and cold temperatures. I found myself scrambling to get to the ski shop to pick up my skis and boots Friday night as thunder, lightning, high winds, and heavy rains began. The Northern Greens were about to hit an October jackpot.

Reports coming in the previous night indicated most areas between Mansfield and Jay likely had received a similar amount of snow. Jay Peak was the closest and most accessible option and thus my destination. Friday night, I walked through my “night before” ritual as if the past four months off season had never happened.

The drive to Jay was much as I had expected. Almost no snow with exception of the high point of I-91 North which provided excellent visual stimulation with trace snow and caked trees. Even Troy, VT was completely without snow cover. But sure enough, the snow began just after turning onto Route 242 and increasing steadily as I ascended to the Stateside Lot of Jay Peak.

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May Earned Turns on the Jet at Jay

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With threats of precipitation, I made the early morning hour drive to Jay Peak (if 9AM can be considered early morning!). Views from Route 100 South and Route 242 West were not impressive. Turns were definitely to be had but not in abundance. I pulled almost everything out of my pack at the parking lot as the temperature was quite warm.

The Jet featured several broken patches, the largest one was just above the mid-point of the trail. Above this large patch, the snow pinched to climbers left, then broke apart before pinching climbers right and then pinching again climbers left. Essentially, there were two really small patches up top, a decent middle patch, and a nice wide open bottom patch. With exception of the bottom patch, most of the Jet was too broken up to get a good rhythm going. I did manage to only click out of my skis once on the descent from the top of The Jet.

Next I headed over to Haynes, which did not have as much vertical but did have much better continuous snow allowing for much more interesting skiing. Climbing up Haynes and the Jet after my last few climbs over on Washington was humorously easy in comparison. It is amazing how much steeper the most mellow slopes of Gulf of Slides and Tuckerman Ravine are in comparison to a typical black diamond pitch at a ski area. Turns down Haynes were fun but I did not have the heart for a third run. After the snow ran out on Haynes, I clicked out for a short hike and then skied over snow and grass until the snow ran out near the bottom of the trail. Desperation perhaps or just plain laziness. Or both.

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